#nope it's from 2000 lol

[sunskate]

VM show: ep 4

they're serious and focused before the FD, but it feels a little heavy, so he lightens it up and gets her to laugh a little

she responds playfully to his Crouching Tiger joke and is straight up cheesing she's smiling so big when she does her lil martial arts pose

but was he disappointed she didn't laugh? "i was trying to be funny" (it wasn't that funny 😅)

but her "trying? succeeding" seems sincere - she seems aware that he's lifting her mood in a stressful moment - look at this smile

and maybe for a moment he forgets the camera crew that's following them around looking for the dramatic lighting like this lol

[orionsangel86]

I watched X-Men 2000 tonight. Yup the Deadpool and Wolverine brain worms got me - at least for a little while - so I figured I'd rewatch the old movies that I havent seen in over a decade and have basically forgotten entirely at this point.

You know what really stunned me? Even more than the slow pace, serious tone, actual dedication to telling a coherent and interesting story with layers of meaning and social commentary attached to it, as well as a sincerity that's been missing from most superhero films since the MCU was born (thanks Josh Whedon).

Nope, what shocked me most was this:

This is a perfect specimen of a man. Look at him. He's gorgeous. But look at his chest? His arms? He's muscular, he's pretty well toned, he's hairy. He's definitely got a six pack - but it's nicely covered by a healthy layer of fat. His skin is plump, he has a bit of squish to him. He'd probably be great to hug (Jean Grey certainly gives him a good squeeze lol).

When he sits down he looks like his stomach will roll just nicely. Like a stomach should.

I know my point here is obvious. It's just that scrolling the Deadpool and Wolvering tag is basically 50% "oh they definitely fucked in the Honda Odyssey" (yes lol) and the other 50% is just horny posting over Wolverine's topless scene like the entire site suddenly adopted Deadpools horny brain.

I gotta give props to Hugh Jackman for his dedication to turn himself into an actual comic book character - because that's what this new movie does. It gives us a comic accurate Wolverine in practically every way (except for his height lol) the suit is amazing, the cowl was a joy to see brought into live action. The body too though was straight out of a comic book artists male power fantasy.

What I wanted to emphasise was that this:

Is extremely tough on the human body. What I wanna know is how long he starved and dehydrated himself for before filming this scene? How long before they shot this did he last drink some water? Because damn that must have been tough. The oil and the lighting probably help further emphasise the muscle, vein, and sinew definition. It's probably similar to how body builders prepare before a show.

Nothing about body building is healthy though. So in the coming weeks as the whole entertainment industry rides on the coat tales of this movies success, and everyone goes crazy over Hugh Jackmans physique, please don't feel pressured into thinking that his 2024 physique in the movie is remotely realistic - or realistically attractive. Like I get the fantasy sure, but come on. I'd personally rather lie on a cushioned bed than a concrete floor.

Deadpool may disagree with me, but he's a masochist lol.

Oh and whilst I stand by the shade I threw at the MCU above, I think Wolverine's different physiques in the movies is a good standard of comparison for how much superhero movies have changed. Because when superhero comics first started getting adapted I think a lot of the choices made were about how to bring them to live action realistically and believably and the attitude was to try not to make them look ridiculous. The first X-Men movies definitely do this.

It was about bringing the comics to life in a way that fit in our world. But over the years, as audiences got more and more used to comic book movies the movies became more and more like comic books and less like a realistic adaptation of a comic book. Does that make sense? So as the movies attempted to bring the comics to life in a way that was less realistic and more comic accurate, the demands on the actors to sculpt their physiques to meet the standards of comic book art became normalised.

I think Deadpool and Wolverine is the MOST comic book accurate of all superhero movies made in the past 2 decades. Half the time the images from the movie look like they could be literally pulled from the pages of the comic books. The story is convoluted and stupid, the plot is barely there and is full of gaping plot holes and elements that don't fit any past stories. The action is ridiculous, extremely fast paced, gratuitous, and violent to a hilarious level. But it's so entertaining, joyful, exciting, and laugh out loud hilarious throughout.

It reminded me a LOT of my attempts at reading through the Deadpool comics (I've read a lot of them but no where near all of them).

To sum up this rambling message with multiple points, I'll say that Deadpool and Wolverine is a really fun movie that I thoroughly enjoyed, but make no mistake there is nothing real in it at all. It is almost literally a comic on screen. Don't expect anything more than that and you'll enjoy the experience.

[fantastic-nonsense]

i usually don’t get into these discussions lol they’re too much trouble, but on your nightwing run rankings i honestly think it’s crazy to call devin’s run objectively bad when it’s kind of THE nightwing mythos, so many writers after were trying to do what she did. taylor’s run is entirely based off hers, some moments beat for beat, and watters is taking notes from her as well.

Also because of fandom and corporate misogyny most people hate her for reasons that are outright lies or exaggerations, so that adds to the stigma around her run with younger readers wanting to avoid it, but it is quite good

I think her Nightwing run is bad because I've read it. Her sexualization and fetishization of Dick is gross, her characterization of Dick was mid, her characterization of Babs is horrible, her approach to writing both Dick and Catalina Flores was incredibly racist, most of her plot was just trauma porn, and she spent nearly all of her 45 issues on the book destroying everything narratively that had been built up by the previous several years of writing. And this is not even touching the way she handled the rape and rape aftermath issues.

As I stated in the original ranking, there are redeeming features: her early issues with Rick Leonardi, before Catalina shows up, are much better than anything she wrote after he left the book. The transition from Dixon to Devin's run was handled well and she competently finished all of Dixon's plot threads before doing her own thing. The Renegade arc is not an objectively good piece of writing, but it's enjoyable to read and has some top-tier comedy in it re: Dick and Slade's interactions. The Wally-Babs scene after she and Dick broke up was lovely. She writes Dick and Tim's relationship well. None of those things outweigh how bad and genuinely unpleasant Devin's Nightwing run is to read overall.

As for the rest of your comments:

it’s kind of THE nightwing mythos, so many writers after were trying to do what she did.

"THE Nightwing mythos" as we concieve of it today was actually created by Chuck Dixon. Despite his other crimes (and there are many), Dixon remains the man who created Bludhaven, moved Dick there, and did the worldbuilding necessary to make a Nightwing solo work in the first place. Everything every modern Nightwing writer does ultimately goes back to something Dixon did in the 1990s when he had near complete control over Dick Grayson's character.

In fact, every writer since Dixon has struggled with the book in part because Devin Grayson spent her 45 issues on the book systematically tearing down the foundation Dixon built (Dick's supporting cast, his rogues gallery, his relationship with Barbara, his life in general, etc) instead of building on top of it, and no one's been able to properly been able to create a new foundation since.

Like, "so many writers after her were trying to do what she did" is a HILARIOUS statement to make considering that most of Dick's writers since then (excluding Tom Taylor) generally do everything they can to ignore as much of what she wrote as feasibly possible. Are we ever bringing up Tarantula again? NOPE! Are we ever bringing up the mob infiltration arc again? NOPE! Are we ever bringing up that Haly's Circus burned to the ground and his apartment building got blown up and he got shot twice and that he stood aside and let Catalina kill Blockbuster? NOPE! The list goes on.

taylor’s run is entirely based off hers, some moments beat for beat, and watters is taking notes from her as well.

Bringing up Tom Taylor's run is also funny because I've actually discussed at length before how if you read Devin’s run and Taylor’s run back to back, you realize Taylor is basically just rewriting her run "BUT I CAN DO IT BETTER!!!" Blockbuster's back in town and a big deal again, DickBabs are suddenly together again despite them having been broken up since Devin's run in the mid-2000s, Dick's trying to clean up Bludhaven from the inside again (though as a philanthropist instead of a cop), Tim and Wally are randomly popping up in guest issues…he basically soft-rebooted Dick back to the Dixon era so he could write his fun little self-indulgent fanfic of what could have happened if Devin hadn’t taken over the book and destroyed Dick's life.

Which is one of the many reasons I ranked Taylor's run significantly higher than Devin's run. I prefer bland mediocrity and Taylor's ignorant #resistlib attempts to address the roots of crime to dealing with the "absolutely worst year of Dick Grayson's life" arc, and if I'm going to get Babs character assassination either way, I'd rather her be a bland supportive girlfriend than clingy and codependent at best and actively hostile at worst.

As for Watters, per his own statements what he's taking from Devin's run is the fallout from Chemo nuking Bludhaven (which happened because of Infinite Crisis and was not actually Devin's decision) and the Dick-Babs dynamic from her issues with Leonardi (which. again. are her best issues because she was basically just wrapping up Dixon's run and hadn't had time to blow anything up yet). More relevantly, he said that Snyder's The Black Mirror, Morrison's Batman and Robin (2009), and Dick's tenure as Batman in general are much more influential in terms of how he characterizes Dick and that he loves what Sam Humphries did in his short run to add depth to Bludhaven as a city. That's not exactly taking notes from Devin lmao.

because of fandom and corporate misogyny most people hate her for reasons that are outright lies or exaggerations, so that adds to the stigma around her run with younger readers wanting to avoid it

Devin is not a uniformly bad writer. I genuinely enjoy her Titans (1999) run and the first few arcs of Gotham Knights (2000). She wrote a solid Stephanie Brown in the opening issue of War Games, and was apparently against killing her off. I think generally when she has to balance team dynamics and is not writing Her Personal Blorbo™ that she trauma dumps onto and self-therapizes through, many of the problems I have with her Nightwing run are largely mitigated or minimized. But she fundamentally cannot be trusted with writing Dick Grayson unless he's in a group title and not in a romantic relationship, and her Nightwing run is case in point as to why.

Anyway. I will never forgive and I will never forget her explicitly stated reasoning for why she wrote the Romani retcon ("Dick's from the circus, of course he's Romani" and "it gives him a reason to be all hot-blooded and alluring to people")! Die mad about it!

[mytardisisparked]

20 Questions for (Fanfiction) Writers

Tagged by @more-better-words; thanks bud!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

74!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count

195,024. I mostly write one-shots lol.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Heh, well. My top 5 of all time are fics that I wrote many years ago (this was before the weird shift we have seen recently in fandom where people are so hesitant to interact with fics) that are not great and I don't really wanna dig those up so,,,, here are my top 5 from 2024! Food for Thought

The Longest Saturday

The Art of Playing Baseball

Oh Freckle, Freckle, What Makes You So Special?

Toothbrushes

4. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment most of what I write is The X-Files with an occasional Star Trek: Voyager fic thrown into the mix. I have written for a handful of the Star Trek shows, Star Wars, and The X-Files.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I love comments and I want to show appreciation when people leave them. I also get comments sometimes that have taken a lot of time to engage with the text and I love to chat with those people!

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

There's a few that I could put here, but I think The Line in the Sand might take the cake (Star Trek: Prodigy fic set in an alternate universe where Chakotay is never rescued from Ysida and... yeah. Check the tags if you decide to check this out.)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my fics have a happy (or, at least, hopeful) ending! Not sure I could really say which is the happiest.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've had a few comments that have been slightly rude, but not outright hateful.

9. Do you write smut?

Nope. What they do once the screen fades to black is none of my business.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I haven't, but I'm not opposed, if the right idea strikes.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not in the traditional sense, but last fall I did discover that The Audio Fanfic Podcast turned a handful of my fics into podfic without my permission. They said on a few of them that "Every attempt to reach out to this author was made. If they want it taken down they may reach out to us" and then proceeded to not leave a viable way for me to reach out to them and address the issue. On the rest of the poded fics of mine, they straight up lied and said I gave permission. I've tried reaching out and have been ignored. I think the thing that disappoints me the most is that, if they had actually asked me, I would have 100% given my consent. I'm all for accessibility in fandom and I think podfics are a fabulous idea! But, since they didn't actually reach out and then lied about it, I was pretty upset.

Anyway, if you are an X-Files or Star Trek fanfic author, you might want to go check their site to see if they have podded any of your fics without permission, too.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! I have written several Star Trek fics with @emilie786!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

It's so hard to answer this because it's always going to be whatever hyperfixation I am currently latched onto lol. Right now I would say Mulder/Scully (and, honestly, I'm not sure any other ship can actually compare but it is so hard to say because I am in the DEEP, DEEP depths of shipping them right now. You know what I mean?)

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Man I really HOPE I finish it at some point, but I have a multi-chap MSR casefic in the works that I have been stuck on for a long long time. I really want to but it is sooooo hard to get my brain to write longform fic. I'm not really built for it. But I still want to.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Evoking emotion? I think? Idk, I like writing really punchy one-shots under 2000 words that make readers feel something.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Longform fics. I also really struggle with describing environments sometimes, or really complex scenes with a lot of movement. And I feel like I have to drag myself through fics that I don't complete writing in one or two sittings. My attention span is a real jerk to deal with.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I've never done it. I think it's neat when other people do!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Captain America: The First Avenger/Agent Carter. Somewhere on Fanfiction.net there are a couple of fics floating around, still.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I feel like this changes a lot for me based on what kind of mood I am in, but right now I am very fond of Shirts, a fic about Scully coping with the events of "This is Not Happening" and "Deadalive."

Thnks for the tag! Some of these questions were very hard to answer.

No Pressure Tagging: @emilie786 @singeart @talshiargirlfriend and anyone else who wants to! Seriously, I am very tired at the moment and I know I'm forgetting people I have been wanting to tag in these things so if you see this please please please do it! I wanna see!

[kakiastro]

The Astrology & Numerology of the 21st Century

Hey yall! You good? I was thinking a lot about this topic lately!

So we are currently still in the early stages of this century which is from 2000-2099! A century is a 100 years, just throwing that out there in case someone didn’t know that lol.

If you were born in the 1900-1999 then you were born during the 20th century which was Pluto ruled but I’ll make another post on that a different time. We are in a new era friends!

So what does this mean?

- well let’s look at the number 21 in astrology first. 21 is ruled by the sign Sagittarius which is ruled by the planet Jupiter.

This is the highest energetic number for Sagittarius. So this tells me that we are in a high intellect humanity cycle.

So, by this century being Jupiter ruled, this means Jupiter transits is ultra important for us as a collective!

Jupiter transits last for a year, so every 12 years, Jupiter starts a new cycle.

This 100 year cycle all about:

- traveling and Imigration themes. If you’re in the US, then you’ll know 9/11 really changed how we travel forever. Even now, traveling and immigration is such a huge topic and will continue to grow. I already have 2 friends that’s moved abroad and have a few family members who’s never traveled outside of there hometowns looking into getting a visa. This also tells me, we are entering a very blended cultural family unit. It’s always been a topic but now it will be the norm. Before it was still such a taboo thing.

- foreign politics. We are going to be more aware about what’s really happening in the world and it’s not all that pretty. We are in a sharing Information Age. There’s a downside to this though because what is the truth because everyone has an opinion on everything. Is there a line in knowing too much? This is what we’re asking ourselves.

-religion/faith/the church. This is a touchy topic for many people because religion as a system hasn’t been the greatest. We are currently in a weird time because so many are leaving the church and healing religious traumas while pursuing spirituality or becoming atheist. While there’s many people who are joining the church and seeking religion and leaving spirituality. As a whole, I believe we are trying to find our purpose in anyway that we can, you know. “Who is God” to you, not what the church, your family or friends think but who is God to you 🫵🏽. This is where the lifelong personal journey begins.

-opinions. I already touched on this but everyone has something is going to have something to say which includes the willful ignorant ones. Yes, everyone has an opinion but are you ready for the pushback of your opinion? I’m already seeing this but communication is getting lost in translation in many ways. Discussing and arguing are two completely different things. You have to ask yourself, “is this topic of discussion worth my peace?” “What can I add to the discussion that can move us forward?” I can tell you right now, as a collective, we’re no where near this level of communication yet lol

-people’s beliefs and ideals are going to be shown. No more keeping things a “hush” nope, we’re not in that type of energy anymore. Be prepared to be shocked by what people believe, we shouldn’t be anymore at this point.

- the Media. I do feel like the way we consume the media such as the news journalist is also changing. I’m noticing it’s the people showcasing what’s happening due to social media. This is good and bad. On one hand, we found a way to spread the word but on the other hand , people are spreading things based on their own motives. We need to find some sort of balance between fact and opinion.

-Colleges/higher learning. I do wonder what the future of colleges going to look like especially for my home country. Enrollment has been on the decline for the past few years. People can’t afford the student debt and I think as a collective we are just tired. I do think colleges will still be around. This is just my personal prediction but I think community colleges will be on the rise and 4 year colleges on the decline, some may even be closing down.

If we break 21 down to a single digit:

2 + 1 = 3

Then we can say we are in a 3 century.

3 rules over communication, ideas, creation, zest for life, youthfulness.

3 is ruled by Jupiter in numerology. See, now we have a strong Jupiter influence.

3 Is ruled by Gemini which is ruled by Mercury in astrology. Now we have a mercurial influence as well.

Mercury rules over our thought process, how we communicate, our mental health/mental health professionals, our job profession, our daily routines, short travels

Gemini ruled over our intelligence, our brain, our schools (k-12) and teachers,our hands and lungs. Gemini rules over mirrors, aunts and uncles, cousins, our best friends, local communities and neighbors.

It’s so interesting because Gemini and Sagittarius are sister signs. They are the same but very different.

Jupiter- college education

Gemini - K-12 education

Jupiter- mass media

Gemini- local media

Jupiter: long distance travel

Gemini- short distance travel

Jupiter- mass opinions (interviews, social media)

Gemini- local opinions (friends and family)

Jupiter- foreign politician

Gemini- local hometown politician

You all get the picture lol

[fandomsniper]

so this is my take on human Caine

keep in mind that this is all my headcanons and imagination, and I'm going with the theory that he is an AI and he wasn't a human before

(again it's my hc!) also minor tw for drvg mention

so going with that logic, man is an AI, for his whole life all he was, was lines of numerical codes and suddenly he's thrown into this world and becomes a human, as we all are aware a human body needs to comply to the laws of physics, biology, etc., it has needs that need to be taken care of for it to function right which an AI in a digital world doesn't need to do so imo all of that had to mess with his head a lot, I think that there is a high possibility that he would experience some kind of body dysphoria, he would feel that this isn't HIS body, that something isn't right, something doesn't fit etc., that would be pretty logical

complete change of how his brain operates (idk what he had as an AI but let's also call it a brain lol), human body operates on five basic senses, which is something that he didn't have to submit to, the list of "senses" he had as an AI in a digital world is probably long as fuck and now he has to lean on only five basic ones? that gotta suck and be absolutely difficult (which should be obvious, imagine suddenly becoming blind or deaf, now you need to learn to operate with even less senses than you had, fucking sucks), back in the digital world he could do practically everything with little effort and now? he is limited by this human body/world and all the laws it needs to obey

still on those senses, I think they are all over the place because of the sudden change so he would be prone to sensory overloads or something like that

he literally needs to learn all social rules, written and unwritten, and overall the basis our world works on, which we had YEARS to learn about as we grew up, and yeah as an AI he had some info about humans and our world 'cause he had direct contact with us back in the digital world but it wouldn't be even close to enough to live here among us (heh) completely out of nowhere

because of all of this, I think that he would be a total train wreck and he would be very prone to fall into some unhealthy habits, like for example imo he could easily get addicted to drugs (idk what kind tho), he takes some pills and he can "get back" to his old life at least for a moment? sign him up! for that short period of time, he could feel "right" again, he could have control again [I'm also leaning towards the idea that he could develop some kind of control issues considering who he was back in the digital world as an AI], drugs give you a high which on you can imagine/hallucinate/feel a lot of things so yeah, he could easily get addicted to those, especially if his trips would revolve around him being back in his digital world, his home

and nope, it's not me projecting onto my fav character yet again, not at all (I'm a big liar)

but fr tho, I think it would make sense if he actually was an AI who was never a human and somehow he got out of the digital world with all circus crew

and I made a visual of him in a picrew! (if anyone will want it, I will drop the link to it)

I made some small adjustments in ibis paint lol, like the eye color and the roughly drawn Glasgow smile scars (for some reason it just fits him??? cause he was literally all teeth and it connected in my brain??? idk but my mental imagine of him as a human has those scars, can't do anything about it) + a bit longer lines under his eyes

he would look like he's in his really late 20's or early 30's

bonus, cause I found that t-shirt in the maker lol, Jax gave it to him

a playlist I made and some footnotes with fun hcs

he would love the movie "The Greatest Showman", can't tell me otherwise

I think he wouldn't have a specific music taste, no specific genre etc. but I think he would enjoy music from 80's and 2000's

he cried watching Bambi

his fav candy is Skittles

for the first two weeks the only thing he would eat was any variation of buttered bread, breakfast? toast with butter, dinner? buttered bread with salt, supper? toast with butter but this time with no crust, he would have continued this if Ragatha didn't step in and practically force feed him scrambled eggs one morning and then continued to do so with other foods until he stopped eating just bread

he likes Lady Gaga

he's not allowed caffeine, under any circumstances, never again, the circus gang decided that as a group

surprisingly, he enjoys horror movies

Jax showed him that one video of car driving through the hills (iykyk), he fell out of his chair

his room is very cluttered, messy but in this artsy-homey way

he picks on his skin a lot, especially when he's nervous and because of that his hands are covered in band-aids

he once saw Zooble smoke and asked if he can try, now he joins Zooble on "smoke breaks" because he picked on the habbit, Zooble kinda feels bad about it

[rollercoasterwords]

I haven't seen many horror films and would like some recommendations. What are some must-watch horror movies for someone new to the genre?

oooh this is such a fun question but so hard 2 answer bc horror is like. such a versatile genre & where u should start depends a lot on like what type of movies u enjoy/what ur looking for….

like if u want sci-fi/alien horror then the obvious place 2 start is w alien (1979) and aliens (1986) (there are other sequels as well but the first 2 are the best) & then also the thing (1982) and its prequel film that came out in 2011 (also titled the thing). AND of course the fly (1986) is a must-see...and if u want something more recent nope (2022) or no one will save you (2023)...both a little more artsy and slow-moving than the 80s recs on this list but very very good <3

if ur interested in slashers then again start w the classics scream (1996) is SO fun it deserves its spot in the horror hall of fame...i know what you did last summer (1997) is also a fun & slightly older slasher; cabin in the woods (2011) is great if u want some meta-slasher-horror; ready or not (2019) isn't necessarily a conventional slasher but i'd still include it in this category & it's one of my faves

if found footage is ur jam PLEASE start w creep (2014) probably my fave found footage horror film ever...but also i'm not a huge found footage fan generally speaking lol. that being said the blair witch project (1999) is of course the classic here but it's not my personal fave; other good options if u want something genuinely freaky/scary are the bay (2012) hell house llc (2015) and gonjiam: haunted asylum (2018)

if u want like possessions & demons etc then. start with jennifer's body (2009) if u want horror-comedy it is SO fun & a staple of the genre atp but if u want something scarier then it follows (2014) is a popular one. there have also been a lot of good possesion movies coming out recently i thought smile (2022) talk to me (2022) and when evil lurks (2023) (<- literally JUST watched this one today lol) were all quite spooky

& sort of possession-adjacent but if ur more into hauntings, ghosts, etc then start w the babadook (2014) or his house (2020) both SO good. also the shining (1980) is a classic & la llorona (2019) is a personal fave of mine (NOT. the u.s. 'curse of la llorona' movie. the guatemalan one.)

if u want witches then start w the craft (1996) another sort of fun one <3 or if u want a classic then hungry wives (1972). the love witch (2016) if u want a visually beautiful & less scary one; the witch (2015) if u want a scarier one.

if u want eerie fantasy-horror then the company of wolves (1984) or tale of tales (2015). if u want a creature feature then blood red sky (2021) for vampires, ginger snaps (2000) for werewolves, and a quiet place (2018) for like post-apocalyptic creature invasion horror.

& SPEAKING of post-apocalyptic. if u want zombies i could make a whole separate post but. START w train to busan (2016) & seoul station (2016) the dynamic duo <3 & then if u want some classics from the genre of course night of the living dead (1968), dawn of the dead (2004...i haven't seen the original one u could watch that one too tho...), and 28 days later (2002). raw (2016) if u want an artsier one, the girl with all the gifts (2016) if u want a fun spin on zombie apocalypse, cargo (2017) if u want 2 cry. & if u want something funny then PLEASE watch zombie for sale (2019) or anna and the apocalypse (2017) or one cut of the dead (2017)

if u want kind of a slower-build psychological thriller then the invitation (2015) is one of my faves, but mother! (2017) is also good if u want an artsy pick & gerald's game (2017) and lyle (2014) are good as well

and then just a grab-bag of horror movies that didn't fit perfectly into any of these categories: barbarian (2022) if u want something really scary, piggy (2022) if u want slow-building horror, midsommar (2019) if u want sunshiney culty a24 aesthetic, us (2019) if u want something that'll freak u out & is slasher-adjacent, get out (2017) if u want slow-build thriller vibes, and teeth (2007) if u want teen-girl horror classic.

bear in mind that many of these films overlap between the categories i've divided them into 4 this answer, as is the nature of horror...if u were asking me 2 just like. force myself 2 choose a top 10 horror movies 2 introduce someone 2 horror w no preference 4 genre or vibe...i think my list would probably be (in no particular order):

alien (1979)

2. the fly (1986)

3. jennifer's body (2009)

4. ginger snaps (2000)

5. train to busan (2016) (<- pains me 2 say bc seoul station is my fave zombie movie of all time but if i had 2 choose just one zombie movie 2 introduce someone 2 the genre it would be this one...beginner zombie movie...)

6. scream (1996)

7. his house (2020)

8. barbarian (2022)

9. creep (2014)

10. us (2019)

[kay9leo]

#MCtober2024 -Meet Iñaki "MC" Martinez Cariaga

Based on @lamieboo's #MCtober2024 event (click on #MCtober for more info).

Note that she's from a Hogwarts Legacy AU that takes place in the late 2000s. Hence why she says Dungeon Snakes Rulez! (if you don't get the reference, it's from Fallout 3). She goes by "MC" since she doesn't want people to call her by her entire double surname. She's also trying to mimic that Spiderman graveyard meme pose here lol.

Iñaki hates potions in the US not because she's bad at it, but because of how careful and focused she tries to be to do well in the class. However, in the UK, she hate History of Magic due to Professor Binns. She loves Ancient Runes and DADA with Professor Hecat being her favorite due to the fact all the things they do in class matter for real life as well. That and she finds Hecat to be a cool teacher Professor.

Iñaki also tends to keep her wand in her hair bun. Most people think that's just a hair stick holding her hair up. Nope, just her wand lol.(More on Iñaki below the cut.)

Originally when she came to Hogwarts, she and Fig were late to the point that they missed her sorting and she was houseless for a week before she was allowed to be sorted.

In that time, she ended up befriending Amit, Poppy, Natsai and Garreth. She didn't care much for Sebastian, finding him too cocky during their first duel in DADA. While Iñaki found it easy to befriend people from the other houses, Slytherins didn't seem as opened to making friends.

Which would work in her favor.

When it came time to be sorted, Iñaki had a plan.

Seeing that she wasn't really going to be in Hogwarts/the U.K. for that long (3 years at most, a year at the least -which is something that she hopes for), Iñaki figured there was no point avoiding the invertible and just limit her interactions with people that she liked. She already had a hard time saying goodbye to her former friends when she temporarily moved to the U.K., she wasn't going to go through that again when she would finally move back home to the U.S. permanently.

When the sorting hat was placed on her head, she was a hat stall for either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff (to most people's surprise when they learned about it). She asked the hat to place her in Slytherin and had to convince the hat as to why. Iñaki would spend 5 minutes on the stool making her case as to why she should join the den of the snakes and ultimately the hat allows her to join Slytherin.

(The hat was impressed by her ambition to not make friends and trying to leave Hogwarts without leaving her own mark on the place or vice versa).

However, before the hat made its decision, it gave her a piece of advice saying:"...things aren't always as they seem. Take a moment to step back and see things as they are and not as you wish.", before it yelled out: SLYTHERIN.

It was a huge surprise to everyone since most people thought she would either be a Lion or a Badger due to her personality. There were even some bets about her being an Eagle, but barely anyone betted on her being a Snake.

Unfortunately for Iñaki, she didn't account certain variables for her plan to remain friendless in the den of snakes. Not with Imelda, Ominis and especially Sebastian as her housemates.

....

More on Iñaki "MC" Martinez Cariaga

[fizzingwizard]

rant

Over this past month I had an unpleasant experience with a seller on Mercari. It's the first time something like this has happened. Basically, they mailed my purchase, and a notice of absence was left as usual. But it never got to me.

Of course it's possible I threw out the slip without noticing. However, in the same time frame I received notices for two other purchases, and received both that package and another from a different Mercari seller. I don't believe I missed the notice because since I had three packages on he way, I was checking every day. It has happened in the past that I got mail meant for someone else in my apartment building. Idk. There's no way to prove one way or another what happened, but the seller was irate, even though the package was returned to them and I offered to pay the cost of shipping. They claim they reported me to Mercari three times yeesh. (They never would have survived on ebay in the 2000s lol)

It was all very unpleasant. They made no effort at all to see things from my side. I apologized nonstop, firstly for being a foreigner (he understood all of my Japanese! It might not be perfect but he never once had to ask me for a clarification, yet he was quick to cry "GAIJIN!" and also he kept asking to talk to my husband lol. And then he said he didn't know I was a foreigner??? Even though my name is obviously a foreigner's name...)

Secondly, for having a totally different set of expectations - I have never had a lasting conversation with a seller before, but this seller expected me to talk to him every day, multiple times. I kept wanting to just cancel the order and lose the money because he was so insistent on talking, even though there was nothing that could be done? And I wish I had just done it. I was like oh, that's not fair, this guy might lose out too and I might hurt my rep on the site, let's wait just a little longer... But I should have trusted my gut. This "conversation" went on for THREE WEEKS with no results.

At last, we were waiting for the results of the post office investigation, which would take two weeks, and I was busy at work, so for a few days I didn't look at Mercari. Nothing had happened for three weeks!! We have a bunch of events going on and are understaffed and I have been just working and sleeping. So I looked at Mercari on Tuesday, said "Okay, I will wait two weeks," (again, after three weeks of nothing!) and then not again until Sunday. Well, the investigation did not take two weeks. It somehow took only a few days. So between Tuesday night and Sunday, the seller found the package, and told me to reply to him about whether I wanted to pay for him to ship it again or not by the next day, or he would report me. The next day he reported me. The next day I looked at my messages and was floored. Yeesh. Where did this desperation come from all of a sudden. While I was wondering where my money had disappeared to, with no proof that anything had ever been shipped for real, all he had to say was "It might take longer because it's coming from [prefecture not near me]." He blamed the post office for losing things and even blamed my (nonexistent!!!) husband for stealing my packages!

Anyway, the fact is he did sent the package, but I did not get the notice about it. Whether that was due to me overlooking it or it got put in the wrong mailbox or was dropped or who knows why, we will never know. I didn't do it on purpose. And even though I understand not getting a quick reply when you want it is frustrating, he got consistent replies from me every single day until *he* told me to wait two weeks. I even thought that by not looking at mercari every day, I would be taking pressure off of him! Nope. He wanted me glued to that screen. He wasn't going to lose any money or goods by my lack of promptness to the message I thought wouldn't come for at least another week. But he took it upon himself to give me a deadline, of the next day, with no warning that he even intended to do something like that.

Finally I told him I was canceling the order. Guess what this guy did? First he told me he agreed we should cancel it as well. Then, since he apparently lives on Mercari, he canceled it himself! I literally started applying to cancel the moment he agreed, but he is just that fast and even though I told him I would do it, he wasted my time and did it himself. I should have rejected the cancellation because I did not agree with how he explained the reason for it (blamed me) but I was worried, since he claims he reported me three times, that rejecting the cancellation and then cancelling myself would look bad. Now I wish I had done it though. Anyway, I've blocked that guy, he can go fuck himself with his mountain of McDonald's Lupin III toys lol.

Of course the money came back to me buuut as Mercari points... So I have to console myself by buying something else on Mercari. Fingers crossed. If the same thing happens I swear I will cry. But not only have I used Mercari many times before without an issue, I've also received mail and packages in Japan for ten years without a single issue. This is an outlier so I'm gonna go forward like it never happened. Also I learned a few things I didn't know about Mercari, like that sellers can upload pictures to their listings of things they are not actually selling, so in the future I'll be a little less confused if this sort of thing happens again. (The seller told me he would put up a picture of the package receipt for me, but never told me he did it. When I asked why he hadn't posted it, he got upset with me because he had posted it... to his listings. I didn't imagine something with personal information on it would be in his listings! He had posted it with the personal info blacked out, which makes sense but also made the receipt useless to me since the point was so I could open an investigation from my end too. *eye roll* But you know what, I would have found it if he'd said specifically it was there. I'm not even 100% convinced it was actually there, because I did in fact look only because I couldn't figure out where else it could possibly be, but I didn't see anything that looked like a receipt. Then, after I complained, suddenly it was right there in the top row. *shrug* He may have uploaded it just like he said, but he didn't tell me when he did so I had no way of knowing.)

It is an insignificant moment of my life but I feel better getting it off my chest lol. And I definitely will just cancel and block people in the future if this sort of thing happens. I was so worried about hurting someone else's ratings unfairly or my own that I wanted to stick it out as long as possible, but clearly that put me at the seller's mercy. Next time I'll do what I want and if it gets me suspended then Idk. We'll cross that bridge if we ever come to it.

[inwintersolitude]

- April 9th 2025 -

Survey About Where You Live

Do you live in a house, townhouse, apartment, trailer, etc.? House.

Do you live in the city, country, suburbs? I'd call it an "exurb." It's a town that's on the very edge of a metropolitan area, but not really part of the suburbs.

Do you live in a small town? It's a medium-sized town.

Do you live in a fairly new housing plan? It's not brand new, but not super old either. Most houses in the neighborhood were built in the late 90s to mid 2000s.

Do you have a lot of neighbors? There are a lot of houses in this neighborhood, probably over 100, but it's spread out and the properties are about 1/3 to 3/4 acre so it's not like there's a ton of neighbors living on top of each other.

Do you like your neighbors? Yes, everyone I've met has been really nice.

Do you have a lot of neighbors your age? No, I don't think so. It seems like most people here are in their 40s-60s. My husband and I are in our mid-30s and we're the youngest people on the street.

Is there a mall where you live? No, not in this town, but there are two malls that are each about 25 minutes away.

Is there a lot to do where you live? There's more to do here than you'd expect in a town this size. There's a historic downtown with lots of little shops and restaurants, tons of parks, hiking/mountain biking trails, the farmer's market in the summer, an arcade, indoor gokarts, bowling… that's about all I can think of.

Do you live near the beach? Not really. The nearest beach is about 45 minutes away.

Do you live near water? Yeah, there are a lot of ponds and lakes and creeks nearby.

Do you live near woods? Yes.

Does a lot of your family live within 15-20 minutes of you? Yeah, my brother and sister-in-law and nephews live about 5 minutes away. And my parents live about 40 minutes away.

Does a lot of your family live within an hour of you? ^

What state, county, city, do you live in? Ohio, United States.

How long have you lived in that area? I've lived in this town for 3.5 years. And I lived in other parts of Northeast Ohio from 1993 til 2013, when my husband and I moved to Northern Virginia.

Does where you live attract a lot of tourists? Just a very small amount, mostly for that weird/niche little museum in town.

Do you like where you live? Yes.

Your House

What kind of house do you live in? Single family house. It's sort of a center-hall colonial revival type of architectural style, maybe a bit Georgian revival.

How many stories is it? Two stories plus a basement.

What color is the outside? Off-white.

Are there bricks? No. I think it would look awesome if it had a brick exterior, though. That would definitely make it have more of a Georgian revival style.

Do you have a big yard? It's about 1/3 acre, so not huge but not tiny either.

Do you have a pool? Nope. I'll never understand why people bother with pools in this climate. It's too cold the majority of the year. A few of our neighbors have pools and it just seems like more upkeep than it's worth.

Do you have a hot tub? No.

Do you have a fence? Yes, the back yard is fenced in.

Is there a sidewalk? Yes.

Are there steps leading up to your front door? Just a few.

Do you have a front porch? Just a small one.

Do you have a deck? Yes.

How many windows are in the front of your house? 11.

Is there a rec. center in your neighborhood? No.

Are you outside a lot? It depends on the weather. I like to go on walks around the neighborhood when it’s nice out.

Are there windows on the sides of the house? Yes.

Is your house close to a main road? It's about half a mile away from the main road into town.

Do you have a big driveway? It's two cars wide, three cars deep. Not tiny, but not huge either.

The Inside

How many rooms are on the first floor? Eight. There's the main foyer, the formal sitting room, the dining room, the family room, the kitchen, a half bath, the laundry room, and the office (but we call it the bird room since it's for our bird lol).

How many rooms are on the second floor? Six. Four bedrooms, the primary bathroom, and the hall bathroom.

How many flights of stairs are there? Two. One going upstairs, and one going down to the basement.

How many bedrooms? Four.

How many bathrooms? Three.

Do you have a basement? Yes.

Do you have a garage? Yes.

A dining room? Yes.

A family room? Yes.

A game room? We use one of the spare bedrooms as a game room/media room.

Do you have any other cool rooms such as movie theatres or salons? Yep, there's the aforementioned game room, and we also have a home gym in the basement. It's just cardio equipment at the moment (elliptical, recumbent bike, stationary bike, treadmill) but we'll eventually add some weights.

In your kitchen, is there hardwood floors or tile? Tile. I’d prefer hardwood, though. During the home inspection, the inspector was oohing and aahing over the "high-end ceramic tile" that the previous owners installed, and I was just like… meh I don't like it THAT much.

Is there always a lot of food? Yes. But I'm mildly into prepping, I always have about 6 weeks worth of food on hand.

Is there any alcohol in your house? Yes, we still have the bottle of champagne that our realtor gifted us when we bought the house.

Do you have a big refrigerator? It's a standard sized fridge.

Living Room

What color are the walls? Beige.

What color is the carpet? The floors are dark brown hardwood. And there's an area rug that's mostly navy blue but also has some tan and sage green.

How many couches are there? We have one big sectional couch.

How many recliners? None.

How many chairs total? No other chairs yet. I want to get a big swivel armchair but I just haven't found the right one yet.

How big is your TV? 60 inches.

Is there a computer in the living room? No. I use my main laptop in either the office or the kitchen. And all the other computers are in the game room.

Is your dining room connected? The dining room is connected to the kitchen and the front foyer.

Is your family room connected? Yeah, it's connected to the kitchen, and there are double pocket doors that connect it to the formal sitting room.

How many pictures are on the walls? A few.

Is there an entertainment center? No, just a regular TV stand. We don't do much TV-watching in the family room, though. Mostly in the game room.

Are there a lot of other decorations on the walls? There are decorations, but not a lot. I don’t like walls to be overcrowded with decor.

Your Room

What size is your bed? The bed in my own bedroom (where I usually sleep) is a twin-size daybed, and the bed in my husband's room (where I sleep the rest of the time) is a queen.

What color are the walls? Beige.

What color is the carpet? Off-white.

Are there hardwood floors? No, the bedrooms are carpeted, but there are hardwood floors in the upstairs hallway.

Are there any rugs? No.

How many windows are there? In my bedroom? Two.

Do you have a TV in your room? No.

Do you have a computer in your room? No. Unless I bring my laptop in there, but that’s not very often.

Do you have any game systems? They’re all in the game room.

Do you have a dvd player? It’s in the game room.

Do you have your own phone? LOL yes of course.

Do you share your room with anyone? My husband and I sometimes sleep in the same room. But we usually sleep in our separate bedrooms, because of his weird work schedule and my insomnia and VERY different mattress/pillow requirements (thanks to my fucked up back/neck/jaw).

Do you have a bunk-bed? Haha no.

How many pictures are on the walls? A few.

What else is on the walls? Some wall art. And on the door from my bathroom into my closet, I have a big poster of a capybara that says "Don't worry, be cappy!"

How many chairs do you have in your room? I have a recliner in there.

What is the square footage? The whole house is just under 4,000 square feet. Around 3,300 if you don't count the unfinished storage rooms in the basement.

Do you have a lot of cds? Nope. Just a few software CDs.

Is there anything else in your room? There's a dresser and a nightstand.

Do you have a walk-in closet? Yes.

Do you have your own bathroom? Yep, I use the bathroom in the main suite, and my husband uses the bathroom that's across the hall from his bedroom.

Do you have a clock? Not in my bedroom. There’s one in the sitting room, and also one in the game room.

Some Other Questions

How many phones are in your house? There’s the two cell phones my husband and I have, and we also still have a bunch of our old ones.

How many TVs? Three, but one is just an old CRT TV from the 90s and we only ever use it when playing our Nintendo 64.

How many dvd players? One.

How many computers? Uhhh, kind of a lot. I have my main laptop, my new MacBook that I haven't even opened yet, my Granddad's old MacBook, my husband's MacBook, my Lenovo gaming laptop, the gaming desktop, and an old Macintosh Performa that we use for retro gaming.

Did you like this survey? Sure.

[kerryshifts]

Also KERRY!!! HOW ARE YOUUU? 🫶

I hope you are well, I just got on ITALY DR GUIDE,which has always been my main Dr 🥹I actually want to ask you few questions and I hope you'll help me :))))

So.. FIRSTLY I'LL TELL YOU SOME BACK STORY KIND OF THING MAYBE? so okie I'm actually new to shifting LIKE JUST RECENTLY INSAW ONE OF THE TUMBLR POST related to it so I searched about it AND I DON'T KNOW IF SHOULD I FEEL LUCKY THAT SUCH A THING EXISTS AND I KNOW ABOUT IT ORRRR to feel OVERWHELMED but anyways I NEED to tell you something 🥹bcs i don't know who to tell it bcs people judge you know? But I LOVE UR BLOG SM and assuming that you won't judge so I am yapping here, I hope you'll hear me out. So in 2022 you know.. Let's just say my life wasn't going well + I use to wonder WHAT IF we were given chance to choose our own life own experiences and all that stuff with free will.. What if after death we'd actually get to choose what to experience and all (I also was a firm reincarnation believer) so yeah I thought yeah maybe in my next life I'll be able to choose my own life how I want it to be and all + (I've read books like "journey of soulsz, and another one idk the name but it's from Michael Newton where it was given that our souls actually plan their life before they come here but I truly didn't believe that bcs wydm I choose this life?) but anyways so during this time I actually use to plan things and life I wanna experience on a book I use to write it (which now I know is scriptijg Dr) and Italy has been one of ym favourite places like I GENUINELY WANTED TO EXPERIENCE THEIR CULTURE (no it's not that like I'm simply attracted to the idea of being in Italy or something or simply I'm Romantising it NOPE like I genuinely I WANT TO KNOW, LIVE EXPERIENCE a life in Italy if it was a simple phase it would have been gone already but nope from three years and I still want to) and coming back in 2022 during that time I literally thought I was a crazy person planning my next life 😭😭😭I even wrote what my name, family, experiences will be like even planned my whole appearnace lol.. So yep.. I definitely thought I was crazy BUT now that somehow I found out about shifting (last month in March) I am genuinely feeling like it was meant to be and my 2022 self would be so happyyyyyy and today I saw you Italy DR GUIDE ANDDDD OFC I HAD TO COME HERE And honestly I didn't tell about it to any of my close friends (like I share things with them) but they'd probably think I'm crazy and brush it off bcs you know how close minded people are so that's why i didn't and don't even want them to. Ofc rn still I'm having abouts and all as a beginner about shifting eheh 😭(how do I not let that happen?) sooo yeah that's all I wanted to say.

And I wanted to ask if you'd like to be by friend (bcs i LITERLLALY HAVE no friends who are into shifting) and how do I make friends here? 😭*I'm too awakward* andddddd I hope you'll reply to this message I'll make an shifting acc here maybe? (I don't want one.. So like make a new different one I'll make)

Plus I assume you're Italy no? So like I want to ask likeeeeee hmmm.. Don't judge me but I want my DR dad to be a italian like ofc Italy is MAIN DR and my mom a french?! (bcs you know I kinda of just want to experience bit of French/france culture in the same DR I hope you won't judge me on it plus my DR Name is something like : "a french first name" "a Italian middle nickname" "Italian surname obviously" showcasing both cultures?) I dunno it it's right or not BUT PLEASE DONT JUDGE AND CORRECT ME BAHAHA 😭

ALSO ANY RECOMMENDATIONS BEFORE I ACTUALLY START OFFCIAL SCRIPTING how do I build my Italy related world building skills and knowledge?..also how's the Italian old money culture? Different types of lifestyles // social classes // lives.. And ofc some best places to live in? + YES another THING IS I kinda want to experience that life from beginning in Italy (so I might shift as a kid in 2000s..to live it from there and reach my current age in 2025 and all) idk if I'll perma shift or not I'm not confident yet :/ but that's all heh <3

Thank youuu soo much for letting me yap 🫶🫶(please INGORE the typos or spelling mistakes I wrote it fast + English isn't my first language :/)

okay okay so hiiiiiiii welcome to shifting and to the shifting community. and for making friends here you just usually make moots first, like interacting with other posts etc, and then it goes on naturally (and yes of course we can be friends <33333). also shifting was literally meant to find you like you were scripting before even knowing about it 😭 so real.

okay now about italy. yes im italian xxxxxxx and dont worry i wont judge ahahahaha

1. i have a guide on how to script, so you can use this to start !

2. old money is all about heritage, understated elegance, timeless style, and often seen in the form of investment pieces and a relaxed lifestyle. think about big houses in the countryside, and weekends in the most luxurious restaurants, or pubs with their friends.

3. different type of lifestyles…….

north vs south. the north, particularly regions like lombardia and piemonte, tend to be more economically advanced and have a more modern, fast-paced lifestyle compared to the south, where traditions and slower living are more prevalent.

coastal vs rural. coastal areas often have a more relaxed, tourism-focused lifestyle, while rural areas emphasize agriculture, family farms, and slower living.

city life vs village. cities like milano, roma, and firenze have a bustling, cosmopolitan atmosphere with a focus on fashion, art, and culture, while smaller villages often have a more traditional, community-oriented lifestyle.

coffee culture, la ‘dolce vita’ but mainly in the summer and spring, and search for festivals because there are so many i can’t even tell you here ahahaha (start with ‘carnevale’)

work patterns often revolve around the midday meal, with a longer lunch break that allows for a leisurely meal and socializing. common leisure activities include watching television, listening to the radio, reading newspapers.

sports like football (calcio) are everything. literally. football culture, and during the world cup….. man you are going to live the best experience of your life. in small cities you usually watch the game with everyone else in the piazza, on a big screen, drinking beer etc. it’s usually in the summer so it’s pretty warm outside.

4. social customs.

greetings. its is common for Italian friends and families to kiss on the cheek when they meet, irrespective of their gender.

teachers. stand up out of respect when the teacher enters the class… the majority of them doesn’t to that anymore, everything depends on the teacher.

5. social classes.

upper class. high-class entrepreneurs, managers, politicians, self-employed people, and high-ranking celebrities. often associated with wealth, power, and influence.

middle class. including white-collar workers (they are the majority of people), professionals, small business owners, and the self-employed. the incomes can vary, but generally represent a comfortable standard of living.

lower class. those with low-paying jobs, the unemployed, and individuals facing economic hardship. poverty, unemployment, and limited access to resources.

social structures and perceptions of social class can vary across different regions of italy. poverty is a really awful problem in italy and that’s why almost 20.000 people (me and my family included) just leave italy with no intention of coming back. its ruining the country along the government, so… you may script poverty out.

6. places to live in. honestly everything depends on what kind of life you want to live. if you want a coastal life, go in the south. in the og post i have the regions, so start by choosing one and then i can tell you some of the cities where you can go… if i know any LOL. personally i’m a small town girly :) there is where la dolce vita is. it can be boring with no friends, but the majority of time you just sit in a bench, or at a park, and just smoke, eat gelato, and gossip.

[ihavedonenothingright]

heyo! curious, what’re you most excited about in your newest WIP? or in any of them lol? what’s the hardest parts? the funnest parts?

I hope you know you've given me an open license to ramble.

In terms of things I'm most excited for, I am currently getting back into one of my original WIPs I started a few years ago, and I can't wait to write the dynamic between the two main characters. Neither of them possess a sense of self preservation, and they're reliant on each other for two (equally unhealthy) reasons: one just needs any source of support because they're embarking on a self-assigned death mission out of a somewhat selfish desire to flee some stuff going on at home, and one just needs to be needed by anyone at all, and doesn't care if they're being used. They're my toxic QPR and I love them <3

For hardest... definitely my Shink WIP "Untethered." That one's just giving me a lot of trouble right now. Mainly because I'm writing a confrontation scene and it's emotionally tense, but I made some progress today! So now I should be able to get back to the stuff I'm good at relatively shortly. I am super excited to write an upcoming scene between The Boys which I've been referring to as "the reunion." The way I'm describing this might lead certain people to think I have way more of this WIP done than I do, but nope! Chapter 3/uhhhhhhh babeyyy. Though hopefully I'll be able to start posting it in July.

And for funniest... I'm currently working on another original WIP of mine that's actually vaguely LOZ adjacent—in that it's inspired by LOZ fandom. I wrote a short story a few months ago based on late 2000s- early 2010s FF.net culture, and that has become a fully fledged novel about the biggest fan of an abandoned fic and the fic's author getting yeeted by *checks notes* Arbiters United (I'm really subtle) into the fic itself to fix it to their standards from the inside out. Said author is none too happy considering they wrote the damn thing when they were like sixteen, and it's been fifteen whole years while the reader is even less enthused to be surviving the angst-laden plot of a fic from 2007. They're very pissy at each other. It's fun.

I hope that answered your question!

[paradoxcase]

Gideon the Ninth audiobook reactions

I listened for a little over an hour, to the end of Chapter 3, and so far it's been great. It's a little odd making notes for what I think about it though - with the ebook I could visually skim over what I read before and take specific screenshots and everything, currently I've just been taking notes in a text editor and it's a little awkward. I had to look back at the pronunciation guide, which was also a little awkward, since the audiobooks are on my linux partition now and the Nook app is on Windows, so I keep having to reboot. I think I decided that for my next computer I'm not going to partition and will just run linux in VM

Anyway, for the name pronunciations:

Nonagesimus: Yeah, that pronunciation is going to bother me, but realistically I think she is going to be saying it so often that I'll just get used it it

Aiglamene: This was stressed on a syllable I didn't expect, but after consulting the pronunciation guide, that is how it was described and I was just wrong. Woe

Glaurica: Not how I pronounced the au. I note there's no instruction in the pronunciation guide about how to pronounce the au, the "phonetic" spelling also just says "au"

Palamedes: Also stressed on a syllable I didn't choose, but I knew full well that that was how the pronunciation guide said to pronounce it and was just in denial. I don't know if I'll get used to this one, we'll have to see

Character voice opinions:

I love Crux, he sounds kind of like Locked Tomb Gollum who doesn't double-mark plurals

I always headcanoned Gideon as having a low voice, probably because I have a low voice I want to see more representation for women with naturally low voices, this audiobook is not giving me that and I just have to accept it. Otherwise it's pretty good, although it's not always distinct from the narration

Aiglamene's voice is perfect

Harrow is also pretty good, but I'm curious if it will change when the main person she's interacting with is Ianthe, because right now it's very aristocratic and I feel like that would sort of overshadow Ianthe being even more aristocratic

The Glaurica voice was great

I'm not sure how I feel about Ortus's voice, but I guess I'll have to wait for the next book to reassess that first impression, since Ortus is now officially gone for the next 16 hours

Just regular stuff about the text that is hitting different a second time:

The Eighth House being described as "The Forgiving House" in the Dramatis Personae made me go "lol nope". Also it feels like a, uh, call-forward, I guess, to Mercy talking about forgiving John

The book opens in the year 10,000. I remember being Gideon and Harrow's age when we got to the year 2000, and we were all having endless arguments about whether the millennium actually began in 2000, or 2001. Why are none of the nerdy young people in this book getting really overinvested in the question of what is the actual first year of the myriad? I can see Harrow and Gideon having an incredibly violent argument about this and it would have been a great callback to some early aughts culture, which is something this book absolutely loves to do

Not really hitting different, but even after reading the whole thing I am still mystified by Gideon's apparent knowledge of Pluto's seasons

At some point it said "they chipped her". Did they put a tracking chip in Gideon, like you do with a cat?

Harrow says "I swear by my mother I have nothing on me" but Gideon was asking her to confirm that it was a fair fight, and it absolutely wasn't, haha

"My parents should have suffocated you" followed by "I'd like to see them try that now." Oof

Harrow saying "my parents have been waiting long enough" at the end of Chapter 2 hits a bit different when you already know at this point that they are dead and its their zombies that are waiting to be puppeted by Harrow. And everyone in the room knows this, she's not like pretending her parents are still alive for the benefit of some random nuns who aren't in the know

"In the Ninth everyone knew [cavaliers] were chosen for how many bones [they] could hump around" - I remember last time someone filled me in on this after Gideon's fight with Naberius and someone else said it was a spoiler, but it's actually stated quite plainly in Chapter 3

[onesaltyerik]

Getting ready for medieval market with my sword group and oh boy...my fit is not at all accurate for the timeframe I been studying with them. Undershirt- 1700's vaguely european style, think Errol Flynn pirate shirt "Tunic"- peach and black tartan pattern knitted vest I found in a box of random clothes my grandma sent me so definitely not medeival in the slightest....but kinda looks it if you squint....

Pants- literally being last minute stitched together by my roomate as I type, I love her so much, I don't know why she does this. Leg wraps- random scraps of yellow wool (technically time period accurate, but it does look a bit weird with the rest of the fit)

Shoes- 2000's ugg boots fished out of the give away box at my parent's house.

Scarf- authentic Scottish tartan (not MY tartan but generic enough it won't be weird), hand woven, wool. Probably the only thing that's even remotely close to the time period I'm studying and it's not even from the right country (though technically I guess it wouldn't need to be since the viking invasions of Scotland were taking place around that time and I guess it's not out of context for some vikings to have had access to Scottish plaids and such, I don't think the specific clan tartans were a thing at that time though so...eh....close enough)

And I have no belt, no pins, no buckles, no hood, and the only weapon I have is just a collection of LOTR replicas which would not really work...also I'm not taking them out of the house, nope. (Could probably borrow my roomate's swords? Maybe one of her older ones?)

So, I'm gonna look kinda stupid. I mean I'll still look like I belong at a renfair, it's very renfair styled, but still, I just want to be a cool ass norseman. (Says the native american choctaw/scotsman lol)

I do have a deerskin though....

[dearamleo]

fanfic author interview game

Thank you @imsiriuslyreading for tagging me!

How many works do you have on AO3?

Six! +1 hidden one.

What's your total AO3 word count?

364,529 (and I'll be honest, that's way more than I thought)

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

Writing Pages - Remus can't stand rich people, Sirius is just tired and Lily and James want them to shut up and date already.

The Sinner's Feast - Doctor Remus Lupin meets outlaw motorcycle club VP Sirius Black. Falling in love with a criminal is complicated and dangerously messy.

Mischief Managed: Marauders' Mansion Mayhem - The dumbest Scooby Doo AU that turns out to not be like Scooby Doo at all. Much to James's disappointment.

An Ode to a Conversation Had at a Funeral - James Potter is dead and Sirius is spiraling. Which gets even worse when Sirius learns about all the secrets his best friend apparently kept from him.

Come Join the Murder - The Marauders, but make it Red Dead Redemption II

Do you respond to comments?

Not as much as I want to... I'm so painfully awkward when it comes to people perceiving me and especially my writing. I'm very excited to see comments and then immediately wanna duck under a blanket or something.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I don't think I'm capable of writing less than happy endings. I've tried, made myself upset and rewrote it lol

But there's definitely a fuck load of angst the rest of the journey.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

They're all happy, but I think the ending for Ode to a Conversation fills me with the most satisfaction. (and maybe one day soon you'll get to read it too lol)

Do you write crossovers?

No- but I do apparently write so many other fandom AUs. Like there's nothing I love more than sticking Wolfstar in another one of my favorite fandom universes and seeing what they do.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really. Someone did bookmark Writing Pages with something along the lines of 'I had to stop reading because they're too emotionally well adjusted'

Which was truly just funny.

Do you write smut?

I... attempt to. I would not say I necessarily succeed and it's probably the thing I struggle with the most because I apparently turn into a blushing virgin the moment I try to type the word stroking or something.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No and I would be a terrible writing buddy. My writing process is pure chaos and I would never subject another human to it.

What's your all-time favourite ship?

Wolfstar (obvi)

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

My 'Endless Fic WIP' folder has... 30 active WIP so I'd say there's a lot that will likely never get finished.

But the one I really want to but just feels like it'll be too big to ever finish is a One Tree Hill AU where the Black brothers are the Scott brothers, James is Haley, Remus is broody Peyton, we've got Barty as Brooke Davis and Evan as a cheerleader-- Just so much.

And I have so many random bits written that are pure early 2000s over the top drama. But yeah. Don't know if it'll ever see the light of day.

What are your writing strengths?

I've been told I can set a scene really well. Really lay out the tone/mood/vibe of the space the characters are in and how they interact with the environment.

I don't know, I tend to write in a pretty visual way.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Pacing/Timing. And I don't know if it's because I actually suck at it or because I'm so paranoid I suck at it but I spend SO much time overthinking if I'm portraying the passage of time in a satisfactory way in a story.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don't know if I have a whole lot of distinct thoughts on it.

I don't think I'd ever really do it because I'm painfully, stereotypically American and can only speak/write English. I don't think I'd be comfortable attempting to use Google Translate and not knowing if I mucked it up or not.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I really wanna write Drarry. And I have one or two drafts started for fics.

What's your favourite fic you've written?

Oh gosh.... Okay, I think Writing Pages is my favorite because it was the first time I ever let anyone read anything I wrote and I'm so very proud of it.

But honestly... Come Join the Murder has been the most fun to write. I'm really loving the chance to write so many different character POVs. Like James Potter has become my beloved in that fic and I didn't even mean for it to happen.

Tagging: I think all my writer friends have already been tagged/done it already. But if you haven't, I tag you!

[decepti-thots]

🍓🧩🔪?

how did you get into writing fanfiction?

i've been writing fanfic since i was. god. probably eight? i was reading ff.net religiously by eleven and fully into it. i just started doing it myself spontaneously, i always liked writing and just used to write stuff about things i liked. and then i was given a slightly inadvisable amount of freedom online as a kid, and i wound up finding out about online fandom stuff by way of roleplay on the neopets forums, and then that pushed me in the direction of fan forums and ff.net and so on. but i always just sort of did it!

what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

formatting being buggered. i absolutely cannot read stuff that is under-formatted (no clear paragraph breaks, etc), tbh. also, anything which uses certain kinds of non-standard punctuation (i'm sorry but if you dialogue involves tildes/~, i am Gone); it massively disrupts my reading experience and i cannot get into fics if that stuff crops up. that's what makes me immediately 'nope' out of a fic i otherwise was interested in.

what’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

the thing is, it's usually the other way around. if something weird winds up in a fic, it's usually because i did the weird research first, haha. i go the other way around! it's not fanfic, but i did however once do a huge amount of reading of 2000s video game review magazines as part of a project that ultimately didn't come to fruition, and god, let me tell you, games journalism used to be so fucking weird sometimes, lol. they really would print basically anything to fill space in a lot of those magazines.